An elephant in the Garden (Michael Morpurgo)

An elephant in the Garden

Michael Morpurgo

The story happens in Germany in 1945. The war is ending and the terrifying Red Army is coming closer and closer to Dresden, the city where Elizabeth, the protagonist, lives. She shares her home with her mum Mutti, her dad Papi and her little brother Karli.

Papi is sent to the front and the family has to survive in a time when food becomes scarce. Mutti works in the zoo and her favourite animal is Marlene, a young elephant, named after the singer Marlene Dietrich,  When the bombs of the Allies start falling in the city, Mutti decides to escape to the countryside with Marlene and her children. As Karli suffers of asthma, he rides Marlene most of the journey.

When they get to their uncle and aunt's farm, a surprise that will endanger their lives is waiting for them,

A powerful telling of the lives of the Germans living through the catastrophic ending of the war, escaping the horror the Red Army is inflicting on civilians and trying to survive thinking about their relatives who are fighting in the front.

Abook for middle-school kids, Elizabeth's voice hepls readers to connect with the destiny of this family and the elepanth Marlene, a symbol of the desire to live, even in the darkest day of History.

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